Saturday, June 30, 2012

New Japan Mickey & Minnie on shelves now

A tweet by @msackeym shows the new Mickey and Minnie are on shelves at Japan Disney Stores!

Carl and Ellie

Disney has released an image of the Carl and Ellie Up combo set that will be released at Comic Con and online on July 12 for $26.95. It is an LE 2000
This looks like a perfect representation of the two kids who we meet early in the Pixar movie Up. It is one of my favorite movies of all-time and although we only know these characters for a short while, they are two of my favorites. The use of ears is fantastic. Check out Comic-Con Explained for the rest of the lineup.

Friday, June 29, 2012

GRR!

Zoe braved the wild to capture this shot of the Bear at Grizzly River Run!

The Monorails: Live at Disney's Grand Floridian

Long before they made an appearance as our favorite 3" Disney collectibles, The Monorails were a band that toured around the Walt Disney World Resort performing at the resorts. We recently dug up some of The Monorails old concert posters, CDs, Albums and publicity photos. The Monorails were on hand when Disney's Grand Floridian Resort opened on July 1, 1988. With that anniversary this weekend, we thought we would start there.
The Monorails Concert Poster

CD Cover

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Release Day! - June 29th, 2012

Lets start with the biggest, most exclusive, piece first.

Today the Park 8 Yeti was released exclusively online. The Casey Jones figure costs $74.95 and there are only 1000 of them. Buy it at DisneyStore.com

At both D-Streets the Duffy the Bears came out. Read more about them at
And also at D-Streets are the new Color Block Series. Read more about them at:
Also remember that Disneyland will be having a trading night tonight from 7-10 at the Pacific Ballroom at the Paradise Pier Hotel.They will also be having signing with Monty Maldovan and Quynh Kimball throughout the day and at the trade event.
Over in Orlando, WDW will have a Park Starz Series artist signing with Thomas Scott and Casey Jones from 5-7 at D-Street. D-Street WDW will also be getting the new 9" CYO Vinylmation '95 pieces.

For all the details of upcoming events go to our calender at

An Additional 25% Off

 
Over at the Disney Store they are having their twice upon a year sale. Today they announced an additional 25% off selected items. Above are the vinylmation I found for the additional savings.

To get the extra discount put one of the items in your shopping cart. Then type in promo code: SALE25.

 Also check out other items on sale, like several of the Funko Pop Vinyl Series.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Comic Con Girl and Boy Revealed

Disney just showed us a picture of the Comic Con girl and boy. Just as we had predicted on the podcast, it's a girl and a boy dressed up in costumes. The costumes are generic vinylmation themed costumes (not Marvel or Disney as we had hoped), but I still think they look great. The boy is a masked adventurer with a utility belt full of vinylmation. The girl has both a cape AND glasses.
Thanks Disney, these made my day!
Readers, what do you think of this set?

This set will be a LE of 2000 and cost $34.95. For more info on the other Comic Con vinylmation check out our post:

New Magic Around the World Figure Released

We were pointed to a Facebook post by Disney Character Central today:

"Picked this up just now at a UK store (not London!). The info on the back more or less confirms the others will come soon too."


This looks like a fun figure to celebrate the World Showcase at Epcot. With the Mickey head flags, it is very similar to the ornaments on the Christmas tree from the Holidays Around the World figure released a few years back. I would have liked a tiny more character to this figure instead of just a black background. Found at a UK Disney Store, it is an interesting universal figure seemingly meant to represent all the countries with Disney Stores perhaps? This is as opposed to those figures meant to represent specific cities.

Spotlight On: Custom Vinylmation Artist Brian Shapiro

To have your custom work spotlighted, please send an email to DestinationVinylmation@gmail.com
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Destination Vinylmation: The Rose from Beauty and the Beast is a great example of less is more. Not to say it didn't take great skill to paint the rose, but it is a simple design that uses the whole package to make an impact. I especially love the fallen petals painted on the base. Tell us a little about the design features. 
Brian Shapiro: Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney animated film, and I wanted to do a vinyl inspired by the movie. When I tried to think of which character to feature, I saw a lot of them had already been done by other custom artists. Then I noticed that a common thread in a lot of Beauty and the Beast merchandise like posters and DVD's was the Enchanted Rose, and I realized that this was almost like another character in the film. It played such a huge part in the story, a little time-clock counting down. I thought it would adapt perfectly to the Vinylmation canvas. In the movie, the rose appears more wilted, but I took some artistic license to make the flower portion fill the entire head of the vinyl. The stem fitted perfectly on the torso, and the arms were an ideal place for falling petals to appear suspended in air. Since the rose was inside a glass dome in the movie, I planned from the start to place the completed Vinylmation in one too. I purchased a small glass domed pocket watch display case from eBay and removed the metal watch stand from the wood base. I then installed a red LED light in the base to cast a dim red glow on the figure at night.

The outside of the base was painted gold, but the inside of the base was painted black so it would blend in with the black areas of the Vinylmation to draw attention away from the Mickey shape. Lastly, I painted some petals on the base that coincided with the one's painted on the figure's feet to make them look like they had fallen off the figure. I was really happy with the finished product, and I was excited when Disney released the Animation Series #1 Beast to display it with. I NEVER take nine-inch figures out of the box, so this was the first time! 

DV: With your Fantasmic set, I like the way you fit the dragon onto the mold. Did it take a few revisions to settle on the final design? 
Brian: While Beauty and the Beast is my favorite animated film, my favorite show at Walt Disney World, hands down, is Fantasmic, and I couldn't wait to make a vinyl inspired by it. Of course, the thing that confounded me was that dragon! The body wasn't a problem since the belly and feet suit a dragon as good as Mickey, but adapting the head was a mess. The fins on the side of the head were troublesome, and I didn't think it would look right if I extended the dragon's lower jaw onto the torso of the figure. Before creating this set, I had never made accessories for my figures. I looked at accessories as cheating, so it never occurred to me to glue fins on the side of the head or attach wings and a tail to the back. I decided as much as I hated not having a contiguous head painted on, I would paint the front of the face and the back of the head separately. Of course this made the figure look strange from the side, but I was willing to compromise that. Of course that's when Disney started creating accessories for their figures like the Have a Laugh series, so I bit the bullet and made a sorcerer's hat out of dental acrylic for Mickey. That was my very first accessory, and I remember feeling guilty about it! Also, please note that even though the piece is inspired by the Walt Disney World show, I designed the dragon to look more like the Maleficent dragon, which is what the current Disneyland version looks like. Now that Disney released the Animation Series #2 Maleficent dragon, I really like their design approach. In hindsight, I guess I could have painted a contiguous head on my dragon, but I'm proud of my finished set.

DV: You include a base with Fantasmic, as you did with the rose. Props or bases seem a common theme in your customs. Where do those "pluses" come in the design process? Do you finish the figures and feel they need a little extra? Or are they in the design from the initial drawing board stage? 
Brian: I really like to plan everything out from the start, because the extras usually affect the painting of the vinyl as you saw with the Enchanted Rose. The base for the Fantasmic set was also planned because I wanted to capture the essence of the scene occurring at the water's edge. Obviously, I quickly got over my guilt about making accessories for my figures when Disney started to include them frequently in theirs. In fact, I try to include them in many of my designs, and it takes a lot of planning to coordinate them with my paint work. Being a dentist and having the access to the tools and techniques of working with dental resins, I think I'm in a unique position to make some really cool stuff. I think my Judge Doom figure really pushed the limits of what can be done, and as you can tell, the accessories played a large part in the design of that particular Vinylmation's paint job.

As a side note, if anyone is interested in commissioning custom accessories for their designs, I would be happy to accommodate them.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Have a Laugh Photoshoot

What a funny day it was when Austin and I stumbled upon the Have a Laugh figures playing around at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
The Magic of Disney Animation
Chip 'n Dale share a peanut (and a Vinylmation).

Muppet Vision 3D
What do Gonzo, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald all have in common? They all love to clean clocks.

Hollywood Boulevard
Somebody seems to be confused.

Hollywood Boulevard
No wonder he's always upset, look at the mess he got himself into this time

Muppet Vision 3D
Look they both have inner tubes!

Near Monster Inc. Meet and Greet
This figure always gives me goosebumps!

Celebrity 5 & 10
Heeeeeeeeey,there's a pumpkin in my bird feeder!

Celebrity 5 & 10
Is one a REALLY BIG MICKEY and a really tiny Mickey?

DVC Stand
There's a luau at Old Key West?

Star Tours
Is this a zoo or nahtazu?

Pin Stand on Sunset Boulevard 
Is Pacific Electric a subdivision of Cloverleaf Industries?

Studio Prop Company
Help! Get me outta here!

Mulholland Fountain Replica 
Just taking a bath.

Backlot
Is there a surprise package in this crate?

Color Blocks Explained

Color Blocks 
Release Date: June 29th, 2012
Where: D-Streets and Hong Kong Disney
Price: $12.95 US, $75 HK
Details: 3" Open Window The Color Block series is basically a bigger version of the highly popular Juniors 2 Series.

Buzz

Woody

Donald

Goofy
Mickey


Minnie

Nemo

Cheshire Cat

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

First look at Popcorns Vinylmation Variant

Update: 6/27/12 Box added.
 
Over at the vinylmation Facebook page they just posted a first look at a figure from the Popcorns Vinylmation line. As we found out last week, they will be selling a special variant from the Popcorns line at Comic-Con next month. Today we got a first look at the full figure of Mickey. It's black and white AND pie-eyed, so this is the variant they will be selling at Comic-Con. What do you think? Do you like this series?
Update: 6/27/12 Today Disney put up a picture of the box that the Popcorns series will come in. If anything, it helps explain the name. It really does look like a popcorn box. What do you think?

And here's a look at the back and side of the figure. Nothing really new to see though...